Derek stirred as he began to wake up, the room still dark for some reason. He rolled his shoulders under the sheets, but as he went to yawn, Derek soon gagged when he inhaled a mouthful of hair.

Derek’s eyes opened wide in shock, and he reached up with a hand. As he grabbed hold of the furry blob on his face, he heard a cry of shock before he pushed the blob off. He blinked several times, wondering what had gotten on his face. When he felt a cold nose press against his cheek, he jerked away. When he turned to look at the snout though, he let out a breath when he saw Zigzagoon staring at him.

“Oh, wait, that’s right,” he muttered, his brow furrowed as the memories of last night came back. As a warm weight on his stomach began to seep through the sheets, he glanced down to find Eve curled up atop the sheets. When the fluffy Pokemon finally sat up and gave a bleary-eyed yawn, he chuckled before he finally sat up. “Alright, I guess that’s enough sleeping for now,” Derek said as Eevee tumbled off him, and slid off the bed before he declared, “Alright, let’s make some breakfast!”

As Derek began to fry some eggs up, now clad in a green hoodie and jeans, he looked down at Eve, the Normal-type waiting patiently, and asked her, “How are you feeling this morning? Are you feeling better now?” When Eve gave a chirp in agreement, he chuckled before he put the pan down.

“Well, I’m glad to see that both of you are doing a lot better,” he said, and reached up to the top of the kitchen. If all it took was a good night’s sleep to recover from a vicious bite like that, it was honestly enviable! Why couldn’t people be that quick to recover? As he pulled a package down, he cracked it open before he finally pulled out some blueberry muffins.

“Now, here’s some leftover treats for the winning duo,” he chimed, and set a muffin on each plate before he finally flipped the eggs over. When he set the food on the table, Indiana and Eve let out cries of delight before they began tearing into their meals.

“Alright, we’ve got a busy day ahead of us,” Derek said as he sat down. Rather than pay attention though, the two Normal-types only gave him a moment’s glance before they continued eating. Derek let out a huff at their ignorance before he began to eat his own meal. “After our meeting at the university yesterday, we should probably get ready to visit Professor Titania this afternoon,” he told them, then took a bite out of his muffin.

As he glanced up at Indiana’s box of finds, he paused when an idea struck him, and he glanced over at Indiana. “H’y ‘Diana,” he began to say, before he swallowed and continued to say, “What would you say to the idea of maybe going item-hunting before we visit her? Any items you find would likely help.”

Indiana looked up at the idea, egg yolk on his face, and gave an eager nod before he returned to devouring his meal. As Derek worked on finishing his breakfast, a sudden call from Eve made him glance up at her. The Normal-type pointed at the counter, and when Derek glanced over in the direction, he frowned at the PokeBall nestled between some napkins, a yellow post-it note on the top.

“Right, I forgot about him,” Derek muttered, and bit into his muffin as he thought things over. He hadn’t bothered to let the Bug-type out since they had returned from the university. It wasn’t like he wanted to get shocked by the giant grub… or end up falling in a pit it dug under him. Still, it wasn’t like he could leave the Pokemon inside the capsule forever. He didn’t know if the Pokemon were kept in stasis in the ball, so it wouldn’t be right to leave them wasting away.

Taking a gulp of water, Derek finally stood up, before he looked at the two and asked, “Do you two think you’re up for some quick activity before we head out?” When both Normal-types gave a nod, he walked over to the counter and added, “Because I think we need to establish some ground rules to our new friend.” The two looked confused, but quickly realized what he meant when he picked up the placed Pokeball. With a faint growl, Eve led the group of three as Derek walked to the back door.

As Derek stepped outside into the backyard, he took a cautious look around for any possible watchers. However, between the line of trees lining the back, and the darkened windows of the neighboring buildings, it seemed safe enough to let it out… After Derek gave Eve and Indiana a quick glance, to ensure they were ready, before he expanded the Pokeball to full size.

In a flash of light, the troublesome, oversized Grub Pokemon appeared on a bare patch of ground. The Grubbin looked around in confusion for a moment, but when it spotted Derek and the other Pokemon glaring at it, the Bug-type let out a cry before it dove into the ground.

“Nope, that’s not happening,” Derek said, and recalled the Grubbin before it dug a tunnel. He kicked some dirt into the hole, before he let the Pokemon out, this time on solid concrete. The Grubbin fell on the concrete with a squeak, and it looked at Derek with anger before it let out a huff.

“Alright, that’s enough from you,” Derek said, and the Bug-type paused at his words, “I don’t know where you came from, but you need to curb your burrowing problems! I can ignore the short-outs you caused, since you naturally burrow. But you have no right trying to kill people who get near you!”

Grubbin started at the last bit, but Derek paid him no mind as he continued, “For god’s sake, what made you think to go full throttle with your Thundershock?! People around here aren’t nearly as durable as people in Alola! If it wasn’t for a classmate being near him, you could’ve killed the teacher from his heart stopping! That’s not even mentioning the burns you caused! For all I know, his hand will need to be amputated, with how badly you cooked it-”

“BIIIIIIIN!” the Bug-Type suddenly cried out, causing Derek to suddenly stop. As he focused on the Bug-type, Derek began to realize the Bug-type was a lot more subdued than before. Rather than full of energy and aggression, the Grubbin was shaking with chittering fangs and watery eyes…

Derek looked at the Bug-type for several seconds before he let out a sigh. “You… you didn’t actually try to kill him, did you?” Derek asked with a flat tone. When the Grubbin nodded, he let out a low groan before he gave Grubbin a look.

“I’ll be honest, I want to believe you,” he began to say, causing the Bug-type to perk up, “But with the damage you’ve done, you’ve got a long way to make amends.” Grubbin crooned at the comment, and it gingerly nudged his foot before it looked around. Derek let out a breath as the Bug-Type seemed to lose all aggression, and put its Pokeball away.

As the Grubbin began to look at the post and salivated though, Derek pursed his lips before he told the Bug-type. “However, I think we should lay some ground rules, to keep from going in the wrong direction.” The Grubbin stopped inching towards the post, only to light up when Derek pulled out two apples.

“Now, you can’t go tearing into every wood you find, so we’ll have to set limits on what’s safe and not safe to dig,” Derek told Grubbin, who nodded eagerly. “Now, for the second bit, I need you to answer one question for me: Are you a boy-” he lifted his left hand up, causing the Bug-type to look at it, before he drew attention to his right hand as he finished, “-Or a girl?”

The Grubbin only paused for a second before it visibly jumped at the apple in his left hand. Derek quickly dropped both apples as the Bug type’s massive mandibles got close, but Grubbin paid him no mind as he rapidly tore into the fruit. As juice splattered around, Derek let out a breath before he pulled out his phone. “Alright, now let’s see what Serebii has to say about you,” he muttered, as he pulled up the website. It wasn’t much, but any tips to avoid losing power helped.

Derek hummed along to the radio’s thriving tune as he drove down the dirt road, a lively tune coming from the speakers. “Ooooh, what if I said I’m not like the others? What if I said I don’t wanna be a part of your games? Who’s the pretender?” Derek softly sang when the chorus began to play, a passionate guitar replacing the hard riffs of the original version, “What if I said-”

“Eee-vee-vee-vee Eeveee!~” Eve chimed, Indiana’s light barks accompanying her voice. As Derek slowed at the intersection, he glanced at the singing pair of Pokemon and couldn’t help but chuckle at their actions. A sudden honk from behind snapped him out of his thoughts, before he continued down the road.

“Alright, now where is the road we are supposed to turn onto?” he muttered as he cruised towards the mountains in the north. As the cracked asphalt turned into dirt and the number of houses nearby became nearly non-existent, Derek slowed down as he noticed a road sign hanging crooked behind a looming oak. Derek slowed down, as he looked at the sign. Seeing it say ‘Cliff Tra-’ before a broken branch hid the last part, Derek turned onto the neglected road. As Derek drove down the road, he glanced around for Professor Titania’s house. How far out could her place even be?

As Derek crested over the hill, his eyes widened in surprise when he spotted a house at the end of the road. Nestled between two rises in the mountains, the main building was barely one story tall, with a flat roof covered with gravel and brick walls. However, the wood building built into the left side seemed a lot more modern, with a large antenna sticking out of the wall, three floors and a new layer of paint over the woodwork.

The lights on the main floor lit up as Derek came to a stop, and the front door cautiously opened before Professor Titania stepped outside. She looked at the vehicle with caution for a few seconds, her coat being replaced for a light blue sweater. As Derek stepped out of the car though, she minutely relaxed before she pulled her hands out of her pockets. “Well, it’s good to see that you found your way here,” she said, and momentarily glanced at Eve and Indiana when they hopped out before she asked him, “Did you manage to take care of the problem we encountered at the university?”

“It took a bit to talk to him, but it seems that he’s willing to work with us,” Derek said as he reached behind the driver’s seat. As he lifted the box of miscellaneous finds out, he turned around to find the Professor staring at him.

“You’re telling me that you managed to actually communicate with the beast?” she asked in shock, before she glanced between Derek and the two Normal-types. The brunette became pensive for several seconds before she asked, “Did… did they manage to tell you?”

“No, but he was able to communicate his feelings well enough,” Derek said as he carried the box over, “Honestly, most Pokemon are able to understand English well enough, so it’s not like I needed to do charades with it.” He stopped at the doorstep as a thought hit him, he looked over at her and asked, “How don’t you know that? Even if you didn’t watch the show, the ads would show that off.”

Derek balked when Titania gave him a glare before she snapped off, “Well, when you work to get a doctorate’s degree in astronomical studies before you hit your thirties, you find that it’s hard to interact with anything outside of textbooks or research papers.” As she opened the door for him though, she added, “Besides, I’ve had to focus on getting my equipment fine-tuned over several months to handle and detect the exotic particles.”

As Derek followed her into the building, he glanced around in curiosity. At first, it seemed to have little changes. It was just a simple kitchen, albeit a bit barebones with papers and books strewn across the counters. When she unlocked the inside door and opened wide though, he couldn’t help but whistle when he saw the equipment inside. With a computer console hooked up to a large HD television, the screen was constantly recording activity, while notes and pictures were propped up on movable markerboards.

“How the hell did you manage to get all this tech for this?” he asked as he set the box down, glancing over at a reading on the screen.

“Well, it helps when you get a large grant for the studies of cosmic radiation and move into a former meteorology facility for cheap,” Titania told him, a grin on her face. As Derek placed down the box, she took out a yellow spray bottle and looked at it critically. She only let out hums of thought as she looked at a mark on the back, before she pulled out the device from yesterday and pointed its antenna at the bottle. “Where did you manage to find these?” she asked as she glanced at the device’s screen, and began to pull out other items to look at them.

“It wasn’t really me that found it all,” Derek said as she began to examine a green spray can with a Pokeball marker before she dropped it back into the box, “It was actually Indiana, my Zigzagoon, who managed to find all this. Most of it was actually found before I even encountered him.”

“Is that so?” Professor Titania said as she examined a Revive he had found, intrigue in her voice. She set the diamond-shaped item back on the counter, before she looked at Derek and asked, “Is there any chance he can pinpoint where he found the items?”

“I should be able to, provided we get a map ready,” he responded, before he paused in thought as an oddity came to mind. When Titania let out a cough though, he shook his head to break his thoughts before he told her, “Excuse me. I’ll get him in here.” He momentarily glanced around the room for it, but when he found the Pokemon wasn’t underfoot, he walked back outside.

It only took a few seconds to look around before he spotted Eve and Indiana poking around a pile of debris in the corner of the property. “Hey, Eve, Indiana!” he called out, causing both to look over at him, “The professor needs to talk to you two about what you guys have found.” Indiana let out an excited bark, and shoved his head into the pile before he ran over, a bright orange rock clutched proudly in his mouth.

As Derek led the Pokemon inside, he gingerly took the jagged stone disc from Indiana before he placed it in the box. “Now, Indiana, I need you to answer some questions for us about where you found it all, okay?” he told the Racoon Pokemon, and the Zigzagoon nodded in agreement. As Titania grabbed a tablet from the counter, he glanced down at the Pokemon before he asked, “So, what I’d like to know first is, how many days were you here collecting stuff before I found you?”

The Zigzagoon hummed in thought, before he began to slap his paw against the ground. Derek tapped his leg with each stomp to keep count, his mind split between paying attention and keeping track. When Indiana finally finished smacking the ground, Derek furrowed his brow before he stated, “Wait, you were here for 23 days before I found you in the trash?”

Indiana nodded again, and Derek rubbed his forehead as he asked aloud, “How the hell did you manage to avoid being found before me?”

“I suspect it’s a bit easier than you may think,” Titania commented, earning looks from both human and Pokemon. Having their interest, Titania pushed a button before the stats on the screen were swapped out for a map of the local area.

“I’ve been studying the anomalies for the past few months, after I began to notice odd feedback signals on my telemetry, with no real pattern outside of not appearing in the same spot twice,” Titania said, and began to tap on the screen to place pins down, “However, while I have checked on over eighty locations, I’ve found traces from only five of them.”

Derek nodded along to the explanation, but when she said that she had only seen five traces, he blinked in surprise. “Wait, five? I thought you only had Bronzor,” he questioned, wondering what other Pokemon she had.

Titania frowned at the interruption, but became pensive for a moment before she began talking again. “Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as that,” Titania said, and pulled out a keychain before she pointed at his box. “Outside of the Grubbin you encountered yesterday, two of the traces were just yellow diamonds, like the one you have. Outside of that, the two Pokemon I found were Bronzor and…”

She paused for a moment in front of a closed door, being pensive for several seconds before she said, “Well, it’s hard to describe them, as they’re not really responsive. It’s easier just to show them to you.” The lock clicked as Titania turned the handle, and the door barely opened before a certain metal disc floated out.

“Bronnn-Bronzorr~” the Bronzor hummed as it floated into the room, orbiting around Titania for a few seconds. When it spotted Derek though, the Bronzor let out a chime before it began to examine Derek.

“Hey, glad to see you again,” Derek said, and gently poked the Steel-type between the eyes before he added, “Well, without hitting you with my head, anyways.” The Bronzor let out a mournful response, before a cry from Eve made it turn. Seeing the Normal-types on the ground, it floated down to talk to them. Soon, Derek began to chuckle as the three Pokemon ran around, with Eve and Indiana trying to catch the elusive Bronzor with paws and jaws.

As the three went into the kitchen, Derek finally looked away when the door opened even further. “Well, here’s the Pokemon I found,” Titania said as she nudged a small, floating pink ball with floral print into the room, “They aren’t really active, though. The only thing of note is that every time I wake up, it’s hanging overhead.”

Derek examined the ball as a sense of uncertain familiarity built up. When she gently spun it around to reveal a short snout and closed eyes though, he let out a faint ‘huh’ when he recalled what it was. “You know, it might just be inactive since you’re never up at the same time as it,” he mused, earning a look from Titiania before she motioned him to continue. “Well, the Pokemon’s a Munna, a Psychic-type tapir Pokemon that eats dreams,” he began to say, “However, since they mainly eat dreams, it may be that it’s normally nocturnal. We might be able to test it if we get her some food, though.”

“I see…” Titania said, and pulled out her phone and began to rapidly type something on it. After a minute of scrolling and reading, she ducked out of the room momentarily before she returned with an orange in hand. “In that case, perhaps some citrus fruits will help wake it up,” she commented, and began to peel the fruit before she broke open a slice under the Munna’s nose.

As the smell of citrus filled the air, the Munna’s eyes drowsily opened before it let out a small, high-pitched yawn. It looked around in a daze for a few moments, before it spotted the fruit and immediately perked up before it lifted the fruit up with a pink psychic aura. As the Munna began to nibble on the orange slices, Titania let out a faint breath before she looked at Derek and asked, “So if it normally eats dreams, does that have any bad side-effects on those Munna feed on?”

“I don’t believe so, no,” Derek said, and scratched his chin in thought before he told her, “Honestly, unless it’s actively draining energy with a move like Dream Eater or Nightmare, it’s actually pretty benign. It can even help with information processing, if what was shown in the manga is accurate. Have you noticed any morning fatigue at all?”

“No, I haven’t had anything like that. In fact, I’ve been rather invigorated when I wake up,” Titania responded, and glanced at the Munna before she faintly smiled. “In that case, I suppose it’s not a bad thing Munna stays out,” she said, and the Munna absently murred as she began to pet the floating Pokemon.

As the Psychic-type finished eating, she looked over at the screen for a few seconds before she began to look at Derek speculatively. “You know, I could use some help with dealing with the wormhole readings,” she said, and tapped her phone before she asked, “Tell me, do you have any current obligations for work or community services?”

“Not really, no,” Derek responded, uncertain of where she was going with this, “So long as I keep my studies up to a high-B average, my rent’s covered with a monthly allowance.”

Titania gave him a look at the admission, but shook her head before she opened a new document on the computer. “In that case, what would you say to working for me to help research the anomalies?” she asked, causing Derek to start at the offer, “I can’t promise more in terms of money, but it’ll help cover for your required community service hours.”

Derek nodded along, and leaned against the wall as he thought things over. While he did need to focus on classes, it wasn’t like there was much else he did outside of hanging out with friends. However, if she was able to detect where Ultra Wormholes appeared…

“Sure, that sounds like a great deal to me,” Derek eventually said, and picked two Great Balls out of the box before handing them to the professor. “Granted, we’ll need to have Indiana sniff around to find more PokeBalls, but hopefully these will work well enough for now.”

Titania nodded along to his words, and expanded the balls to full size when she pushed on the buttons. “That’s perfectly fair, though I’d love to break them open to study the mechanics,” she commented. As she watched the Zigzagoon jump off the counter in an attempt to surprise Bronzor, she froze for a moment before she cautiously asked, "Are they always able to find stuff so well?"

"Yeah, I believe so. Honestly, I suspect he might have the Pickup ability," Derek mused, trying to remember the details of the ability, before he glanced at her and wondered, "Why do you ask?"

Titania was silent for several seconds, before she eventually said, "I suspect that I may need him to do some investigating around the previous locations for me."

At the comment, Indiana stopped on the counter before he tilted his head in confusion. "Ziiig?"